Scribe Casey Sherman demands return of Strangler files

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Fox 25 morning gals, from left, Catherine Parrotta, Melissa Mahan and Shiri Spear model the three Red Sox World Series rings in the team’s ring raffle.

John DiNatale looks through diaries written by his father, Phil, an investigator on the Boston Strangler case, in ‘Stranglehold: In the Shadow of the Boston Strangler.” (Photo courtesy of John DiNatale)

The feud between Boston Strangler writer Casey Sherman and Brighton private detective John DiNatale, whose father was an investigator in the Strangler killings, got uglier yesterday with Sherman firing off a missive to Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley asking him to confiscate DiNatale’s case files because 12 of the killings attributed to Albert DeSalvo are technically still unsolved.

“The files are government property, not the property of the DiNatale family,” Sherman wrote. “One of the frustrating things about this case was that people like Phil DiNatale took home trophies of their work in the case — evidence that truly belongs to BPD and your office. … I think your office should regain control of these files as there are still 12 unsolved murders connected to the Boston Strangler case.”

DiNatale fired back that the evidence in his possession — Phil DiNatale’s handwritten notes, copies of his reports, and his personal drawings, letters and diaries — belonged to his late father. “Nothing I have in any way whatsoever inhibits anyone in law enforcement from conducting an investigation, this is just sour grapes,” ?DiNatale said. “But I would certainly be more than happy to talk to Dan Conley.”

A spokesman for the district attorney last night said they hadn’t yet received Sherman’s request, so he couldn’t comment on it. As we told you earlier this week, Sherman and DiNatale are squabbling over Sherman’s contention in his book, “A Rose for Mary: The Hunt for the Real Boston Strangler,” that DeSalvo was not responsible for the 13 killings that terrorized Boston in the 1960s.

Sherman, whose aunt, Mary Sullivan, was the Strangler’s last victim, theorized that investigators mishandled the case and that there may have been more than one killer. He targeted a New Hampshire man as his aunt’s real murderer, but last summer, authorities exhumed DeSalvo’s body and DNA evidence proved he was the man who sexually assaulted, then strangled, Sullivan to death.

DiNatale and his nephew Myles Jewell have produced a rival documentary, “Stranglehold: In the Shadow of the Boston Strangler,” based on Phil DiNatale’s investigative files that they say prove DeSalvo was the man who committed all 13 murders. DiNatale said Sherman has been slamming his father and the other investigators on the case based on his flawed investigation and false conclusion about DeSalvo.

The standoff is headed to Hollywood, where Sherman’s book is being made into a miniseries for Fox television, and DiNatale and Jewell have signed on as consultants to a Strangler movie Casey Affleck is producing.

“I’m outraged that John DiNatale and his family continue to profit off my aunt’s murder and the murders of 12 other women,” Sherman fumed. “The files are not family heirlooms or an inheritance. They are not to be turned over to movie makers for a profit, but are evidence in murder cases that remain open to this day.”DiNatale countered that he and Jewell produced the documentary so that the “real story of the investigation could be seen for what it was, one of the most thorough investigations in the history of the country.

“There was no physical evidence at the time nor was science and technology at the point it is today to finally put this investigation to bed,” he said. “My father and his partners were right, they deserve the recognition for their hard work and dedication, not some amateur sleuth who knows absolutely nothing about murder investigations.”

DiNatale said he is so convinced that the documentary proves his point, he is making it available for free to anyone who emails info@strangleholdthemovie.com.